Las Vegas: a place known for its resorts, the Strip, and casinos in what seems like every corner.
However, this summer, the Vestavia Hills Math Team traveled there in July for reasons other than gambling: the Mu Alpha Theta National Convention.
MAθ Nationals is not like the other tournaments that our math team attends during the school year. First off, it is called nationals, so as Jeffrey Zhao explains, “most of our math tournaments are in the southeast region, but with MAθ, we were able to travel to a whole different region and experience what the math culture is like there.”
Eric Wang notes, “You meet people from all over the US: Hawaii, Florida, Washington, etc…That's just not something other math tournaments can offer because of the length and scope of MAθ.”
More on the students attending, Andy Sheng describes, “The beauty of Mu Alpha Theta is that it fosters connections between similar-minded students across the country, something local tournaments cannot replicate.” There is so much to say about how special it is to be able to meet kids from so many different places.
Both students and sponsors had a blast at this convention because of the unique opportunities that the tournament and location had to offer.
For one, it lasted for a full week. Adi Sheelavant comments, “I was able to spend more than 84 hours with my best friends…Never at another math tournament, or even trip in general, would I have been able to visit the Grand Canyon, the Sphere, Hoover Dam, and the Las Vegas Strip with my closest friends.” Like many students, his favorite part of the trip was “watching Postcard from Earth at the Las Vegas Sphere. It was just phenomenal…it felt like sitting inside of a spaceship traveling along the surface of Earth.”
The convention itself was packed with activities and a wide variety of events, so every student had options on what they wanted to participate in. Carol Li, who attended her last convention this summer, explains that MAθ “lets kids explore a lot of different topics, whether it be in physics, discrete, or just anything people might be passionate about that we don't normally see on tests.”
There are even competitions that focus on skills other than math; Mrs. Hyde, the senior math team sponsor, said that her favorite part of the convention was an event called Chalk Talk: “I really love getting to listen to students present their speeches on topics they have been working on the entire summer. They are all so well done and I learn a lot!”
Lastly, the schedule offered activities purely for making memories; there were morning yoga sessions, an assortment of talks to listen to, and even a convention-wide pool party!
In addition, one of our students had the opportunity to serve as MAθ’s secretary! Allison Xie says, “Being secretary was really fun! It gave me the opportunity (and more courage) to just approach people and have a conversation with them…The best thing about MAθ for me isn’t the trophies I take home, but the friends!” It was also really cool watching a Vestavia student handing out trophies!
As for the lows of the trip, there was one main answer that the students will tell you:
“The Vegas heat :(“
“My least favorite part of the trip was the heat and how dry it was.”
“Worst part: the temperature”
“My least favorite part of the trip was the heat. It was unbearably hot to where it hurt to stay outside for too long. Walking in the heat was a huge pain.”
In fact, these mathletes braved through the hottest temperature ever recorded in Vegas: on July 7th, the high reached 120 degrees.
Despite the high probability of heat stroke, Vestavia Hills placed in every division and many of the other unique events; overall, they took home 104 top-twenty placings, seven team trophies, and the overall 4th place title!
As every student there will tell you, it was a trip for the records (literally) as many exciting memories were made. When asked about his least favorite part of the trip, Andy Sheng replied, “My least favorite? I always end up wishing for one more day.”
Looking forward to the upcoming season, the team is already hard at work and will be competing soon in the fall. Nationals 2025 will also be hosted in Orlando.
Congratulations again to everyone--Go Rebels!
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